RESIDENTS of Frimley are up in arms about another possible development of flats on the site of an ex-councillor’s former house in a quiet residential street.

A development of 22 flats in Westerdale Drive is planned to be built on the site of Eastlea Court — the grand home of Terry Lyons, the long-serving local councillor who died earlier this year.

The proposal follows three other applications for large developments of flats in the Heatherside area which have each provoked strong protests.

Eastlea Court, which is currently divided into six flats and set in relatively large grounds, will face demolition if either of two applications by Linden Homes are accepted and the property sold to the developer.

The proposal for 22 flats has gone to appeal, with the deadline for comments on it being the end of this week.

Linden is also pursuing an alternative plan to build 20 flats and three two-storey houses, and has had planning approval from Surrey Heath Borough Council for an application to build a single detached house on the site.

Ben Zwarts, who lives next to the site, felt the flats proposals were totally unsuit-able for the area. He said: “Definitely no-one is saying no development — we’re saying 20 flats overlooking the other houses is too much.

“We are not exercised by the one house, because on its own it fits in with the area.

“It’s unusual to have two simultaneous submissions. The worry is that if we don’t support them over the 20-flat development they’ll go with the bigger one.

“They have not done a good job about constantly keeping the residents informed.

“Some of our neighbours have not received notification at all. There’s real confusion about when the deadline is.”

He added that there would be inadequate parking inside the development for the number of flats, meaning that cars would inevitably spill out into nearby streets.

Mr Zwarts also said residents believed there was a covenant attached to the land which stipulated it could only be developed with detached housing which would fit in with the surrounding streets.

So far more than 70 resi-dents have registered formal objections with the council to the 22-flat plan and they have also handed in a petition against the development.

Elsewhere in Frimley residents have also had cause to organise objections to proposed flat building.

Some recently formed the Heatherside and Parkside Action Group to protest against an application for 20 flats in Upper Chobham Road.

On a separate site in the same road the borough council granted outline planning permission for 18 two-bedroom flats with car parking, despite another petition and formal complaints against it.

Another proposal is for 68 homes, a mixture of flats and houses, on land at the Ridgewood Centre in Old Bisley Road.

Mark Chatterton, spokesman for the Heatherside and Parkside Action Group, said the increased traffic that flats in Upper Chobham Road would bring could be dangerous.

He added: “So far the surveys done by Barratt have been a joke, it just makes a mockery of it. For us and for most residents it’s about traffic in that area and the danger that’s going to be created.

“It’s one of the council’s green corridors and I think it has made residents nervous about losing the character of the area.”